January 2010 finds Brian Noble with a team of fewer than 10 players, playing in a town 100 miles from its home base and where there is little indigenous support and a negligible number of juvenile local rugby league players.

Financial constraints mean that he cannot pay transfer fees for players and cannot pay wages up to the full salary cap. He signs journeymen with no top-level international experience to play in Superleague but also continues the development of Welsh players via a link with the South Wales Scorpions, who are also starting from scratch at a new ground and under new ownership. Young Welsh players such as Elliot Kear, Lloyd White, Ben Flower get some opportunity to play in Superleague that no other club would have offered them.

September 2010 finds the Crusaders in the playoffs, ahead of Bradford, Wakefield, Castleford, Catalans and London. The Scorpions finish sixth in Championship 1, ahead of Workington, London and Gateshead.

You're right ... after following up a career history of winning three Grand Finals and a Challenge Cup with Bradford, the saving Wigan from relegation with this kind of abject failure at Wrexham ... he must be a rubbish coach.

Noble's record speaks for itself: anybody who belittles it needs to go away and have a think.I believe that his time at Crusaders is in many ways one of his keynote achievemnents. Whatever he does next will be to suit him.If he leaves Crusaders, it's important to remember thaat he has a an able and ambitious replacement in Iestyn Harris